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Monday, March 7, 2011

Adventure #41: Reale's Pizzeria

Before I give my impressions of Reale's Pizza & Cafe as a whole, I'll start with the pizza since that's what brought us there to start with. The pizza was ok. I don't think we had any complaints. We went with The Roasted Pie which is topped with roasted peppers and onions, fresh garlic, and olive oil. The garlic was strong, really strong, punch you in the face strong, which I dig. The peppers were tasty. The sauce was not non-existent, but wasn't distinctly flavored. The biggest comment we had about the crust, which was pretty standard, was that we really wanted some extra virgin olive oil to dip our crusts in.

Regarding the restaurant as a whole, sometimes I wish we took more pictures of place because this place really was a whole package, any one piece of it separate doesn't really work but as a whole I liked it. Reale's Pizza Cafe is an adorable restaurant that reminds me of the kind of place Olive Garden is ripping off. It has the columns and the plants and the prints of classic paintings on the walls. You're likely to see a lot of old people and other interesting people (I think old people are interesting).

The huge puzzle mounted on the wall behind my table (I have vowed to decorate my entire pizzeria (when I have one) with puzzles).

The one problem that I had was that the service seemed less attentive than at an Olive Garden. I do know that our waitress was dealing with a large and rather demanding table near us, and I know we're pretty low maintenance (unlike the dude on the other side of us who wanted her to make sure that the calamari wasn't fried *too much* as if otherwise the restaurant purposefully cooks the calamari to the point of rubbery oblivion), but I appreciate when the waitress remembers that I asked for lime instead of lemon in my water and I don't have to hunt her down just to pay for dinner.

I have no idea if this is typical service (the maitre d' was super apologetic that we waited the actual amount of time that they told us we'd have to wait for a table) but I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that while the atmosphere is nice and the pizza was ok (they have a full line of standard Italian dishes that you might check out) great service would be the one thing that takes me from being on the fence about recommending this place.

In total, I would like to try Reale's again to get a solid take on whether I can recommend it or not. It might be great for taking your grandparents out to dinner (unless they're like the horrible people on the other side of us that salted their pizza. Those kind of people should stay at home, in the dark, with their salt shaker). It might be good to take a date to if you're not really trying to impress them with how hip you are and maybe can make up some sort of nostalgic feel-good story about coming here as a kid with your Nana.

-Karin*

*I'm writing this whole thing with a headache, so I apologize for any grouchiness. Such is the life of a pizza adventurer; we try the pizza but most of the time come out with vague feelings about places rather than conclusions.